Redevelopment

by Vaclav Havel [1987]

Adapted for radio by James Saunders from an original translation by Marie Winn.

Produced by Gordon House.

A new Inspector of Projects promises his team of architects complete freedom to redevelop a medieval castle town to be something more socially constructive. But how long will this freedom last? 

Broadcast 6 November 1989, The Monday Play 

192/44; 130 MB; sound quality very good

Cast: 

Martin JARVIS: Zdenek Bergman,  Principal Project Director

Penelope WILTON: Luisa, architect, about 40

John MOFFATT: Special Secretary

Kim WALL: Albert, architect, about 25

Cyril SHAPS: Kuzma Plekhanov, architect

Christopher GOOD: Ulch, architect

Karen ASCOE: Renata, secretary

Jo KENDALL: Mrs Macourkova 

Kerry SHALE: 1st Inspector

Michael KILGARRIFF: 2nd Inspector

Joe DUNLOP: 1st Delegate

Ken CUMBERLIDGE: 2nd Delegate

Joan MATHESON: Woman 

   This play was written during a period in Havel's life as he prepared to transition from dissident into elected President of the Czech Republic. Prague was one of the few major cities of Europe that was not significantly damaged by bombing and artillery in WWII. It is today among the most beautiful of Europe's old cities. The Czech national pride of Prague's beauty and tradition is one of the 'unseen actors' of this drama.

   The drama takes place in a Castle overlooking Prague where 7 or so architects and planners are considering the wisest way to improve the slums of the city. The group has members who are modernist & coldly logical in approach and members who are romantic and concerned with historic beauty and tradition. Planning bureaucrats, still in office from the autocratic Soviet-dominated era, visit the group to confirm that the designers' efforts 'conform' to ideology.

- Jeffrey L. Blackwell, an Amazon contributor

   Written in the time of Perestroika, this play critiqued what Havel saw as the same oppression with a different name. It was the first full length play of his that he was able to see after he became President. He saw it in Iceland, at the Plodlejkhusid Theater, en route to his first official visit to the United States. He is said to have enjoyed the performance, though he does not speak a word of Icelandic.

http://www.untitledtheater.com/havel/plays/redevelopment.html

   This is a major work: a dense multi-layered allegory with its roots firmly in reality... It is set in a medieval castle in a historic town in Eastern Europe. Supervised by a state functionary and led by an emotionally chaotic project director, a group of architects struggle to come up with a high-rise building scheme that will destroy the ancient town's character and incidentally clear away its slums. On the realistic level, the play is about a universal architectural dilemma... But it also works as a political metaphor about the whimsical arbitrariness of autocracy... This is vintage Havel: creating a work that is both specific and universal, tragic and comic.

- Michael Billington (Guardian)